I don’t know about you but I am always looking for ways to make life easier in just about anything I do, being my work or house jobs or quilting.  Last weekend I found two things which helped me no end with quilting things.  

I always wind my own bobbins on my Janome machines and it is not a problem with standard colours but when it is a special colour that you use for just that quilting project you are then left with the cotton on the bobbin and start to run out of empty ones.  The boys for quite a few Birthdays and Christmas bought me packs of ten Janome bobbins which was great and I have lots until I got down to around five left so I had to empty the special colours. 

So I put the bobbin on the end of a pencil and started to pull the thread off but it kept coming off the pencil, lets just say everything I tried did not work well until I saw in my box of tricks my walking foot with its bar attached.

If you have one of these and can take the bar out of the foot put the bobbin on the bar as below and begin pulling the thread.

It works really well and the bobbin cannot jump off because of the angle of the bar.  I managed to clear out twenty bobbins with this method really quickly the other night.  If you can’t take the bar off your walking foot perhaps look for something else which has this angle to it to help clear the bobbins.

My second tip is for a magnet which means you will need to speak nicely to your children/grandchildren/niece/nephew etc for help with this one.  Our Boys had these games, Geomag, and lots of different versions.  They are little pieces of magnets wrapped in plastic which you can make shapes or play games with and the Boys loved it.  I did not love it when I was picking them all up off of the floor when they dropped the boxes but I did find a great use for one of the pieces;  for picking up pins and sewing needles when I drop them.  So I now keep one in my little box of tricks for when I drop my pin box!

Talking of boxes one of my favourites which I use a lot of in the sewing room and in the attic and in the garage and just about anywhere else I need to store things and those are clip boxes as I call them and mine are from Really Useful Products Ltd.

They come in all different sizes from huge to little itty-bitty ones and I have found lots of uses for them.  The big box at the back has all my things in which I use day in day out for quilting so different quilting feet, tools for my machines, cleaning tools, pencils, pens, quilting pens; you get the idea.  The box on the left is smaller and holds my bobbins and I have two more of these; one with quilting safety pins in and the other quilting pins in.  The box on the right holds my boxes of sewing needles for my machines.  They do all stack together which is great.

DH and The Boys bought me this clip box which has a lift out container inside for all my cotton and a section on the bottom for other things.

I also store my fabric stash in several of these boxes which are long and not too deep.  I would say they are the best thing I have found to use in my sewing room.  I don’t get any money from Really Useful Products Ltd, I just like them and thought they might be useful to you too.

It is raining and very cold here today so I will be quilting for most of it.  DH is still not well although he is better than at the start of the week so we are hoping he is getting better and he has to be as he has to go to Scotland next week.  Youngest now has it and went coaching this morning and when he got home went straight back to bed.  He has an audition and interview at Stafford University on Wednesday but they have said he can re-arrange it if he is not feeling up to it.  It seems to have settled on my chest and although I am not coughing like DH when I do it sounds like nails on sandpaper and I am wheezing!!!  Treacle is despairing of us all!

I hope you are all keeping well and have a wonderful weekend.

Hugs, Susie xx